


The Sleepless Princesses

by literaryladytype



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Mermista causes A Revelation, Not a relationship fic, and talk about their feelings like ppl, sad scorpia, scorpia and adora pine for the same catgirl
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-14
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:35:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25261693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/literaryladytype/pseuds/literaryladytype
Summary: Scorpia is wandering the halls of Brightmoon palace late at night when she runs into a hurt Mermista and a tired Adora, and begins to piece something that she should have years ago.
Relationships: Adora & Catra (She-Ra), Adora & Mermista (She-Ra), Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Adora/Mermista (She-Ra), Catra & Scorpia (She-Ra), Catra/Scorpia (She-Ra), Mermista & Scorpia (She-Ra), Perfuma/Scorpia (She-Ra)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 76





	The Sleepless Princesses

**Author's Note:**

> TRIGGER WARNING: brief brief mention of torture, joke about kidnapping, also you know they’re in a war so talking about Silenias being taken by the Horde, discussion of afteraffects of the emotional manipulation and anti princess propaganda in the Horde, Scorpia is Going Through It and briefly mentions self harm but not seriously considering it

The hall of the Brightmoon palace was dark, save for a soft beam of light radiating from the runestone through an elegant picture window.  
Scorpia stopped outside Adora’s door, crossing her arms.  
Just for a second. Just to think. (It was late. Later than late, what was she doing?)

“Nothing like a toxic, sapphically coded friendship ripping your entire life in two, right?”came a voice from a dark corner, sending Scorpia jumping into a defensive position and picking the figure up roughly by her pincers.

“The great equalizer- oh my god! Put me down!” Mermista shrieked, as Scorpia released her, eyes wide.

“ _Wow_ ,” Mermista scoffed as she brushed herself off, her snark sounding like a thin, ragged version of it’s usual self. “You almost killed me.”

“No, I didn’t.”Scorpia’s voice came out like a little kid’s, embarrassed.

Mermista gives her a face that contains untold multitudes, the kind of “ _I see through your entire soul and your emotional bullshit and also everything in the universe_ ” look that’s so goddamn piercing Scorpia immediately has to look away.

She crossed her arms again, frustration building.

_Princesses.  
_

_Can’t a girl have an existential crisis in peace?_

“What were you talking about?” Scorpia demands, not waiting for a response. “Just stop, stop acting like you know me. You don’t. And what in Hordak’s name do you-”

Mermista’s face falls horribly.

“What?” Scorpia repeats more urgently, the resentment cracking away from her voice as Mermista turns away from her and to the window.

“ _Hordak’s name_ , huh?”

 _Fuck_.

“Mermista…”

Mermista spins roughly around, almost knocking a vase from the historical collection off it’s stand. She practically slams it back to it’s pedestal, giving the painted She Ra figure on the vase a surprisingly scornful eye.

“You’re right, Scorpia. I don’t know you. I know Adora, and I thought you two had been through similar shit-“

“What the- we have _not_ ,”Scorpia defended immediately, and it echoed loud off the high ceilings.

“Wow,” Mermista said again, disregarding Scorpia’s words so easily as she turned back towards the window.

And Scorpia had hated Mermista’s painfully piercing gaze, but she hates this more, the way she pretends like she’s some sort of child...

Scorpia goes to the window and faces her, waiting for an explanation.

Mermista just stares at the runestone, until she takes a deep breath and mutters something about “having to do everything around here” and finally faces her.

“Well,” Mermista starts, “at the very least you were the only two princesses to grow up in the fright zone?”

That actually- Scorpia has never thought of it that way before.

Her and _Adora_ , on the same side, being- being used? In the same way, like an eerie mirror image- it was way too much.

(The more time Scorpia spent away from the fright zone, the more traitorous thoughts and memories began to fold and fester out.)

“Could you stop pacing? You’re freaking me out.”

Heat rose to Scorpia’s cheeks.

_Why were princesses like this?_

“You’re the one who- Whatever, I- I just, I just was looking for the kitchens, okay? I don’t know how I got here, I certainly wasn’t going to go talk to her.”

She jabbed a hesitant finger at Adora’s door.

“In the middle of the night?” Mermista began in a false, dreamy voice. “About how you both got screwed over by the same love of your lives? And you still stay up, wondering if you’re betraying her-“

“Remember how I almost killed you,” Scorpia says, on impulse, and immediately wants to take it back, covering her mouth and then opening it again to apologize but Mermista turns away again, going somewhere unreachable in her head, and Scorpia doesn’t even realize she’s processed it until she jokes:

“Whatever you say, buff lady with claws and a stinger thing I do not want to be poked with,” Mermista sighed and walked off.

Moments later, Scorpia couldn’t tear herself away from replaying her words in her head.

_“Late at night? About how you got screwed over by the same love... how you’re betraying her?”_

What right did Mermista have?

Why did these princesses think they got to turn her inside out whenever they felt like it?

And her, in love?

With _Catra_ \- was she in love- no.

Maybe?

She didn’t want to think about that.

The further away she got from the fright zone the more she realized all the things that were wrong with how she used to live when she looked back.

 _It’s this castle_ , part of her screamed. _It’s this wretched castle, these nefarious princesses who want to kill you and your good memories of the Horde._

But late at night?

When she had nightmares about Catra yelling and cursing at her, about losing control of her new connection to the runestone and being cast out by every single group, who was there to comfort her?

Perfuma.

Saying sweet, impossible things like “you can always ask for help. I’m so sorry that anyone taught you anything else.”

And Mermista was shitty tonight, but she was in a lot of pain. (And pining at Adora’s doorstep. Scorpia knew more than she let on.) Usually she... usually she was better.

Like the time she told her she didn’t deserve what happened to her kingdom either, after they fought close to the now Horde controlled Silenias and Scorpia tried to comfort her.

Scorpia sat down wearily, hitting a vase with her claws and panickedly scrambling to catch it.

An unmistakable crash echoed in the hall, and Scorpia peered and the door in front of her guiltily.

If Adora isn’t up now...

Adora had been avoiding Scorpia.

There wasn’t really a way around the fact.

She’d have nightmares sometimes where Scorpia screamed at her, her red lightning strikes hitting her chest as she fell to the ground. _How could you betray her?_

(Her meant Catra.)

(It was always Catra.)

And that woman was terrifying when she connected to the Black Garnet. That it had ever belonged to anyone but Shadow Weaver was somehow still hard to understand, Shadow Weaver who wielded it for power, for torturing- no, don’t go there, Adora.

 _For torturing me as you did nothing, Adora. I’m not going to let you forget me that quickly, come on,_ Catra’s voice rings in her head. 

But, but it was fuzzy but on Dryl, she knew Scorpia had hated her.

And even in another world it had been Scorpia who had a dislike for her that apparently _crossed over realities_.

So that was something to think about.

Not that Adora tried to.

For a while it was easier to leave it at that, but now she was outside, fighting with a likely drunk Mermista about who knows what as Adora was _trying_ to sleep- she’d heard her name once though, unsettling...

A loud echoing crash came from right outside her door.

The universe really wasn’t going to give her a break this time, was it?

( _When has it ever?_ )

( _That’s not helpful_ , Adora thinks, but it’s late and she’s lost the energy to care.) 

She pulled herself out of bed, flicking on a small purple lantern as she grabs slippers and finds a dustpan, quietly opening the door.

A look of terror crossed Scorpia’s face as she looked at Adora and down at the vase.

“Gosh, I am so sorry, this was completely an accident, I didn’t mean to wake you-“

Adora rubs her eyes. “It’s fine. I can help you, we should get the broken shards.”

“O-okay.” Scorpia said shakily, surprised. 

_God, Catra, how much of an ass did you make me out to be?_

“It’s okay, it’s not like all of it is broken-“

Scorpia picked up the large piece that was still intact unsteadily and it cracked it loudly in her pincers.

“Oh my gosh,” she said panickedly again, as Adora caught the shards with her dustpan.

“Adora, I am so sorry, I will-“

“Can I tell you a secret?”Adora said, resisting the urge to put a hand over Scorpia’s mouth. 

She couldn’t deal with more apologies tonight. 

Scorpia’s eyes widened dramatically. It would be funny if it wasn’t so familiar.

Catra’s voice echoed in her head, something about naïveté.

Something true.

What in _Etheria_ are you doing, Adora.

Let go.

Just let go.

“Not- not whatever you think I’m going to say. I’m not gonna induct you into a secret princess cult that, like, kidnaps babies.”

Scorpia laughed at that, loud and unconvincing.

“That’s- that’s not a thing, right?”she asked, her voice going higher.

“No. Definitely not.”

“Okay good. I’m so sorry, old habits die hard I guess?” Scorpia opens her mouth to keep going and then closes it.

And Adora remembers Alwyn, the holograms, the tales of evil princess after evil princess she couldn’t stop telling.

She takes a breath in. “No, I get it. They told us a lot of ghost stories in the Horde.”

“Yeah,” Scorpia said, her gaze drifting into an unsettling melancholy.

It hits Adora suddenly that it must be very different to grow up in a place where you are the villain of every bedtime story, instead of learning it in reverse.

She remembers seeing Scorpia at Princess Prom, a million years ago, and the jealousy that flashed through her as Catra’s hand intertwined with hers.

She had been so, so dumb.

Scorpia looked worried, confused.

Adora sighed and began again.

“Okay, but what I was going to say is that I’m pretty sure most of the artifacts in this wing are replicas,” Adora whispered conspiratorially, sweeping up more of the vase.

“Really?” Scorpia tried whispering.

It wasn’t something she had a natural talent in.

“Yeah, with the princess alliance being here, there’s kinda a lot of things that could easily break and the royal historians are very…”

(Adora makes a plan not to think about her interactions with Bow’s dads.)

“Protective,”she finishes uncertainly.

“So they’re all just fakes?”

“That’s the theory. Bow and me kinda agree I mean, Seahawk alone constitutes a fire hazard. And this shard is supposed to say Etheria? It says Elbow. I wouldn’t want first one’s relics anywhere near us either, honestly.”

“Yeah, but really?”Scorpia says, shocking Adora.

“All of that history is just locked away somewhere? What about everyone else? Isn’t that kind of sad?”

Adora just looks at her.

“What?” Scorpia says, sharper, insecure.

“Sorry, you just… you just believed we might be a cult of child-stealing royalty? And now you want to preserve our history?”

“That’s _not_ what I said.”

“Okay, but you’re scared of princesses-“

“I _am_ a princess-“

“Those two don’t necessarily cancel each other out, you know-”

“ _Don’t_.”

It all happens so fast that it’s only when Scorpia turns away angrily, hiding her falling face, that Adora realizes she’s crossed a line.

Oh no. Oh no, no, no, this is not supposed to be her job. _No_. She gets to turn into a eight foot tall lady with a sword and fight bots and first ones and her own best friend to save Etheria, she is not the one for emotions, where’s Bow and Perfuma when you need them...

Scorpia hasn’t left yet, which is a minor miracle.

Or stung her. Or gone full lightning mode. 

...Maybe Adora needs to give her more credit.

Scorpia just sits under the window as the soft glow of the Brightmoon runestone plays with her wavy white hair, and Scorpia puts her knees to her chest, arms wrapped around them.

Adora says the first thing she can think of, which experience has proven is a bad choice.

“You know how Catra calls me princess sometimes?” 

Scorpia’s head snaps up in shock and something Adora can’t place.

“Adora,”she yawns, “please... if this story doesn’t have a point...”

“It does! It does, I wouldn’t tell you it if it didn’t.”

Scorpia believes her, which is it’s own shock.

Just why? Why would she bring that up?

“It’s not like-“ Adora starts and then stops. “Glimmer asked me once if it was a- like, uh, like a flirting thing. In battle. To like, psych me out.”

Honestly, Scorpia’s just proud of herself for not throwing herself out the high palace window right then and there.

“It’s not! Obviously. You know Catra, she’d- that’s not...”

Scorpia almost laughs at the falseness of that- Catra is obsessed with you, she’s always been, yes, she is flirting with you, you and your sparkly transformation sequence and your hair poof and _everything everything everything-_ but there’s no way this conversation is going end with Scorpia telling Adora _that_.

She’s not that self destructive.

This is why she didn’t want to start this.

Adora starts again, the hurt in her voice becoming more and more suffocating.

And oddly, painfully familiar.

Mermista’s angry words come back to her :

_”...I thought you two had been through similar shit...”_

She hates that she’s right.

“But she’s calling me that to remind me that I joined the other side,” Adora continues. “That I betrayed her. That I’m one of them, and it works. It used to hurt, so much. Even though it’s true, even though I am- I’m a princess, it still hurts. So maybe I can’t understand all of it...”

Scorpia tries to think of what _all of it_ even means anymore. Her having to separate the truth about her family from Horde propaganda? Her holding on so tight to the few memories she has left of her moms? Her getting bullied, mercilessly, or else hiding the fact she was a princess? Being the witch, the villain, the murderer and kidnapper in every bedtime story? Thinking she could never belong with these people? Catra always, always choosing Adora over her even though they were on _different sides of a war?_

“...Maybe I can’t understand all of it, Scorpia, but I know it’s not an easy space to be in. Between both sides. Especially when you have to leave someone that you care ab- I just. I’m so sorry.”

Scorpia’s eyes widen and she tries to process.

Mostly it’s Adora’s eyes that does her in, scared but steady, caring so much yet so unsure.

It’s like a dam bursts in her. Scorpia was never one who could hold a grudge for very long, and suddenly she wraps Adora in a huge hug, Adora replying a soft “oh” but then wrapping her arms around her in return.

Scorpia tries to hide her tears, but they fall and fall until she says: “I can’t believe I left her. I needed to, but I can’t- I think I _loved_ her.”

“Oh,” Adora says again, patting her on the back awkwardly.

“It’s- It’s okay Scorpia. I understand. It- it was the right thing to do.” Scorpia embraces her again as Adora gives the same warmly surprised “oh” and hugs her a little tighter.

Scorpia has spent a lot of time making Adora the villain.

Adora _left_ Catra. Adora _betrayed_ the Horde. Adora-

Sitting there, on the other side of war, in the enemy stronghold, arms wrapped around the biggest threat to Horde victory-

It all feels like wasted time.

Scorpia dries her tears and they clean up the last of the shards quietly, whispering goodnight.

They don’t talk about what happened again, but the anxiety between them starts to dissipate.

Mermista nearly shrieks when Scorpia comes up to her in the morning and hugs her, telling her that she was right. Scorpia and Adora aren’t so different after all.


End file.
